The God of the Irresistable Future

"The God of Israel will be your reward." - Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.
 

Security for To-morrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our reward. God’s hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.

Security for To-day. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

The Test of Loyalty

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28, ESV

 It is only the loyal soul who believes that God engineers circumstances. We take such liberties with our circumstances, we do not believe God engineers them, although we say we do; we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our Lord. Suddenly God breaks up a particular set of circumstances, and the realization comes that we have been disloyal to Him by not recognizing that He had organized them. We never saw what He was after, and that particular thing will never be repeated all the days of our life. The test of loyalty always comes just there. If we learn to worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in two seconds when He chooses.
 

Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the thing that we ‘stick at’ to-day. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything, but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talking about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.
 

The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us—‘I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine.’ God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

The Bow in the Cloud

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth." -Genesis 9:13

It is the will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. ‘Why does not God save me?’ He has saved me, but I have not entered into relationship with Him. “Why does not God do this and that?’ He has done it, the point is—Will I step into covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.

Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that. God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man. It is a question of faith in God—the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings. I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say—‘Now I believe.’ There is no faith there. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”

When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of A Sermon

The Art of Listening might well be the most the important skill a Christian must develop, because Christianity is at its essence all about the Word of God. In fact, God himself is the Word (John 1:1) and the Word became flesh (John 1:2)—safe to say that if God is the Word then how we use our ears is pretty important. Furthermore, you can only come to faith through hearing (Rom. 10:14) and then you grow mature through hearing (Matt. 13:23).

The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord (1 Sam 3:21).

Do you get it? Seeing God happens through hearing. Our vision is through our ears. My friend, if you have either not yet come to Christ, or you have but are frustrated, confused, and not really growing, then I would bet big money that your problem revolves around not listening as you should. Here are some tips on listening well to a preacher, or to the Word of God in any context:

1. Get in range regularly

The reason Zacchaeus collided with Jesus was because he climbed the tree. If the soil is not in range of the sower then it isn't going to receive any seed. This first point isn't rocket science: you need to be regularly exposed to God's word. Try to do a few minutes of personal time each day with the Bible, and obviously ensure you are at church each Sunday. Get in range.

2. Be expectant to receive

The good news is that the Word of God is supernatural stuff. It is living and active and burrows right inside us, doing us good (Heb. 4:12) and it will always achieve its purpose (Isa. 55:11). So listen expectantly. If it is a topic or preacher that you are not too excited about, then pull yourself together and get excited—the issue is the pizza, not the delivery boy or the box it comes in.

3. Understand it

The Parable of the Soil (Matt. 13:23) stresses the importance of not just hearing but understanding. Take notes, listen again to the download, discuss it at small group, go over the Scriptures again. One way or another, check you that you 'get it'.

4. Mix with faith

Hebrews 4:1-3 speaks about two groups of people who heard the same message. One group benefited big time. The others thought the message was useless. What was the difference? Only one group mixed the incoming word with faith. As you listen, be assured that God has your best at heart, and set yourself to receive the word and to obey it with joy and conviction. Not because you 'have to' but because you 'get to.' God isn't looking for blind, begrudging obedience. He is looking for faith!

5. Actually do it

The difference between the foolish and wise builders in Matthew 7 was that one put the word into practice and one didn't. If you don't actually obey the word then your life and faith will be built on sand. You will continuously be unsure that 'Christianity really works.' So, if you hear a message on forgiveness but do not forgive, then your house may fall flat. James says that you will be a like a man who looks at himself in the mirror and then goes away and forgets what he looks like—you will be insecure in who you are and in who God is. Obey. Put it into practice. Then you'll grow.

  

From the Resurgence Blog, written by PJ Smyth

Authority and Independence

 
"If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." John 14:15 (R.V.).

Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of oneness of spirit. That is why when Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF—you do not need to unless you like. “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself”; let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One who uttered them.

The Lord does not give me rules, He makes His standard very clear, and if my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him, I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean, but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I shall discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When once God’s Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul, it always creates. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives, because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

Crushed

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,” -Colossians 1:24, ESV

 We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant, flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say—“Here am I, send me.”
 

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
 

I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service. We have to be adjusted to God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

Dead Lions

“But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” -Ecclesiastes 9:4, ESV

There are those in this world who chase after power, money, and the admiration of man. The world hails them as visionaries, role models, and as kings here on earth. They are as the mightiest of all beasts, the lion. But one very important truth escapes them, they too will come to their natural end. The lion and the dog must one day die.

The Lord was the greatest person to walk the face of the earth, yet He was regarded as lower than a dog as He was led to the cross. There are men that will set themselves up as lions and they may rule here and now, but there will be a day when those regarded as dogs will rule over the dead lions. To be regarded as a dog by the world but to know in your heart that you are a lion in the eyes of the Lord is one of the true joys that come from understanding our identity in Christ.

Thank You

Once in a while I hear from one of our former students. I received this message a couple of days ago and I wanted to share it with everyone. It is not a testimony of our ministry as much as it is of God's wonderful grace and powerful calling upon the hearts of His people. Though this letter is to me as you read it you will see the real hero is Jesus. I have omitted certain personal details and the students name.

Hey Pastor Matt!
 
I'm just going to cut it to the chase

Thank you.

Since I was eight you've encouraged, mentored, and challenged my walk with Christ. I think sometimes when people are raised in church we turn on autopilot and sometimes check out and I believe that was me. I knew that God was real and that He loved me and stuff but I don't think I knew who God was.

I've even had to step down (from ministry) a few times because my walk with Christ was...pretty much non existent. I clung to a mask of smiles and handshakes covering a life of sin, and filth. I was living in sin and also mocking God with my presence in the church.

Thank God for my parents, who fear the Lord, for showing me Jesus even when I spat in their faces.
And thank you, for calling me out, for your boldness in what you minister to us because its God's convicting Word and nothing less.
 
My moms greatest fear was sending me off to college, she even tried to "Marry me off" but it was only Jesus Christ that could save me. He did! Believe it or not, on August 8th 2010, I fully surrendered my life to Jesus. I cant believe that I sat in church all theses years and played an act, but He is faithful and He still pursued me. and I just wanted to let you know that.

Jesus is moving at my school. I'm involved in some Campus for Christ ministries, but its the people, I have strong sisters and brothers in Christ that have been my iron sharping me. We know in our hearts that God has called us to do something big, so please pray for us.

But thank you. Thank you for your faithfulness and your love for Jesus, because you have been my role model all these years and great will be your reward in Heaven.

I just felt the need to tell you...so thanks again.

"And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"  Romans 10:15 (NIV)

Reflecting on 9/11

On September 11th, 2001 almost 3000 people died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania. I remember getting ready for work that day, like any other day, when live coverage on the Today Show broadcast the horrifying video of planes cutting through the twin towers. I stood slack-jawed in unbelief at what I was seeing. Several minutes later the World Trade Center came crashing down in a plum of fire, smoke, and toxic ash.

Later reports came in of plane crashing into the Pentagon, the Pentagon! The country was bracing for the worst, how many planes were out there and where would the next crash be? Next the report came in of a plane that was possibly heading for the White House crashing in a field in rural Pennsylvania. That was a tense day with everyone hoping that the senseless violence had ended.


The days following 9/11 we saw the best of American charity, brotherly love, and solidarity. Churches were packed the Sunday following the attacks. Men and women from all over the country volnuteered to help at ground zero. Thousands of American young men and women enlisted in armed services eager to defend our country. Many of us prayed fervently, for the victims, their families, and for America.

Today the news is dominated by war on two fronts, the growing intolerance for Muslims, and the pitiful financial state of our nation. How did we get here? How do we get out of the mess we are in? When can we get back the way things were before 9/11? These are the questions I find myself asking but there are no real answers.

What is the best way I can honor the memories of those who perished on 9/11? I believe it is to live a life free from the fear of terrorist attack, support our troops, and most importantly pray for our nation. I pray for the recession to end, for troops to come home and lasting peace, and for the threat of terrorism to be wiped from the earth. Most importantly I pray for revival.

I pray that God's people would rise up and take hold of their mission to bring the Gospel to every soldier, Muslim, and neighbor. I pray that idols of greed and gluttony that consume America be crushed. I pray that we could love men and women who worship other gods without compromising our Faith in Christ, and show them Christ by how we love one another. Jesus is Lord and He is the answer.

My Joy ... Your Joy

 
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ” -John 15:11, ESV 

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God’s word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

The World Is Filled With Boys Who Can Shave

Check out this article recently published in the Washington Post by one of my favorite authors, preachers, and church planters, Mark Driscoll

What's Your Purpose?

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” -Psalm 139:14 (NIV)
 
Recently, a 29 year-old nurse, Melanie Stevens, found a cello lying beside a trash bin and put it in her trunk and left it there for a couple of days. She decided she wanted her boyfriend, a cabinetmaker to put a hinge on the front of it and to install little shelves inside so she could use it as a CD case.
 
What she didn’t know was that this instrument was a A 320-year-old Stradivarius cello valued around $3.5 million. As it turns out, the primary cellist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic left the instrument outside his home and a bicyclist stole it. No one knows why he later abandoned it, but he did and as fate would have it, Stevens found it.
 
Luckily, before her boyfriend got a round to making the CD case, Stevens saw a news report about the missing cello and returned it. The cello made in 1684 was one of about 60 made by Stradivari in his Cremona, Italy works. The Los Angeles Philharmonic bought it about 30 years ago. According to Associated Press, Robert Cauer, a Los Angeles-based instrument restoration specialist says the valuable instrument is damaged but repairable and should be back in service by this fall. Cauer added the prospect that the prized instrument could have been turned into a CD holder “is so abominable, I get sick when I hear it.”
 
Imagine something worth $3.5 million dollars being used to store CD cases, Cauer is right, it is abominable. A noble instrument like this one was designed for a much higher purpose than holding recorded music, it was made to create it. I wonder what Stradivarius would think about this?
 
God has created you. He created you for a purpose. I am confident that He wants you to fulfill the purpose for which you were created. Too many people settle for the common the ordinary, when God had much more in mind when He created them. They become CD racks, when He designed them to be a unique, one of a kind masterpiece.
 
Are you fulfilling the God’s purpose? If not, will you make a commitment today to discover His purpose and fulfill it?

Wilson, J. L. (2009). Fresh Start Devotionals. Fresno, CA: Willow City Press.

Are You Really A Christian?

Jonathan Edwards sought to promote vibrant Christian faith through teaching people what the “marks,” or signs, of godly living actually are. He did so not merely because he was really smart and liked categorizing things, but because he wanted Christians to experience the joy of true Christianity and then spread that joy to others. In short, he was a missional pastor before the vodcasts and fauxhawks.

1. You Love Jesus

In his 1741 text Distinguishing Marks of a True Work of the Spirit of God, Edwards laid out a number of negative and positive signs that distinguished a true work of God from a false one. Though Edwards focused in this text on revivals more broadly, his words apply to individuals seeking to discern whether they know the Lord.

The first of these signs was a “raised esteem” for Jesus Christ. The point of this first sign is that when the Spirit moves in a person’s heart and awakens them to faith and repentance, their view of Jesus changes. The nominal believer respects Jesus, but does not reverence or exalt him. The true Christian takes delight in Jesus, a delight that is often palpable and contagious. As we serve on mission for God by promoting the gospel, we should expect to see a “raised esteem” for Jesus Christ, the author of our redemption.

2. You Hate Sin

The second sign of a “true work” is an increased hatred for sin and defeat of sinful practices.

When the spirit that is at work operates against the interest of Satan's kingdom, which lies in encouraging and establishing sin, and cherishing men's worldly lusts; this is a sure sign that 'tis a true, and not a false spirit… So that we may safely determine, from what the Apostle says, that the spirit that is at work amongst a people… and convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt that it brings, and the misery that it exposes to: I say, the spirit that operates after such a manner, must needs be the Spirit of God (Works 4, 250-51).

This point, like the others, is both profound and simple. One of the clear signs of a work of God is increased hatred for sin. Our eyes are suddenly opened to see the dreadfulness of one’s condition. Where before one had spotted weaknesses and flaws, but always had excuses at the ready to cover up those personal blemishes, now the Spirit shows the sinner just how degraded and evil he is.

3. You Love God’s Word

The third sign of a “true work” is a love for the Bible. Edwards tied this love for Scripture not to simple literary appreciation for its contents, but to a Spirit-given hunger and thirst for the Word of God:

That spirit that operates in such a manner, as to cause in men a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures, and establishes them more in their truth and divinity, is certainly the Spirit of God... The Devil never would go about to beget in persons a regard to that divine Word, which God hath given to be the great and standing rule for the direction of his church in all religious matters and concerns of their souls, in all ages. (Works 4, 250)

Many people respect the Bible. It is known as a “holy book,” a sacred text. But few people view it as the actual word of God that God himself “has appointed and inspired to deliver to his church its rule of faith and practice” as “the great and standing rule for the direction of his church.” Where a person’s heart flames with love and holy “regard” for the Scriptures, the Spirit has worked.

4. You Love Truth

The fourth sign that marked the presence of a “true work” was a heightened love for truth and the things of God.

An awareness and responsiveness to divine truth was a clear signal that the Lord had moved in human hearts. So where people came to see “that there is a God” and that he is “great” and “sin-hating,” and that they themselves have “immortal souls” and “must give account of themselves to God,” the Spirit was working true conversion.

Edwards rightly noted that the Spirit does not lead believers into error. Therefore, when we hear news of conversion, whether mass or individual, we need to listen for resonances of the truth in the testimony of the convert. Do they love the truth more? Do they love God more? Do they subscribe to sound doctrine, and root their faith in it? Missional Christians seek to hate sin and to lead others to do the same.

5. You Love Believers

The final positive sign in Edwards’s taxonomy of the Spirit’s “true work” was love for one’s fellow Christians.

Many people who profess Christ lose their footing on this final point. They may well appreciate fellow church members and contribute in some way to their well-being, but they have not been filled by the Lord with a holy love for fellow Christians, and thus they do not serve them. True conversion will cause stable couples to take in young Christians hungry for discipleship. It will lead Christians to give generously to missionaries and fellow believers (see 2 Corinthians 8). It will drive older believers to spend time mentoring younger ones (see Titus 2).

In the end, the way one cares for one’s fellow members says more about our testimony of conversion and our understanding of gospel mission than we might initially think. True Christians serve their fellow members out of love, as a response to the grace of Jesus.

(Taken from the Resurgence Blog, Adapted from Chapter Three of Jonathan Edwards on True Christianity from The Essential Edwards Collection)

I Will Serve The Lord

"You are not able to serve the Lord" -Joshua 24:19

Have you the slightest reliance on any thing other than God? Is there a remnant of reliance left on any natural virtue, any set of circumstances? Are you relying on yourself in any particular in this new proposition which God has put before you? That is what the probing means. It is quite true to say—‘I cannot live a holy life’; but you can decide to let Jesus Christ make you holy. “Ye cannot serve the Lord God”—but you can put yourself in the place where God’s Almighty power will work through you. Are you sufficiently right with God to expect Him to manifest His wonderful life in you?
 

“Nay, but we will serve the Lord.” It is not an impulse, but a deliberate commitment. You say—‘But God can never have called me to this, I am too unworthy, it can’t mean me.’ It does mean you, and the weaker and feebler you are, the better. The one who has something to trust in is the last one to come anywhere near saying—‘I will serve the Lord.’
 

We say—‘If I really could believe!’ The point is—If I really will believe. No wonder Jesus Christ lays such emphasis on the sin of unbelief. “And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” If we really believed that God meant what He said—what should we be like! Dare I really let God be to me all that He says He will be?

Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

Judge Yourselves That Ye Be Not Judged

“Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.”  — Daniel 5:27

 It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, “Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?” Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavour to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did—“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, “Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be ‘found wanting,’ when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.” “Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.”

Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

FaceSpace - The Pastoral Repsonse to Social Networking

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.””  -Ephesians 5:11–14, NIV

Social networking has changed the way we communicate with each other inside and outside the church. In the last 5 years these sites have opened a window of our personal lives to the world, revealing the good, the bad, and at times, the ugly. As electronic communication devices get smaller and easier to use and the influence of social networking grows we will see the line between virtual and physical relationships continue to blur.

The advent of social networking has been a great leap forward in personal communication. We can simultaneously communicate with hundreds, even thousands of people in seconds, alerting them of what is happening in our personal lives, business, church, or school. We are able to reconnect with old friends, classmates, and family members. Social networking has also expanded the influence of music and art giving artists an avenue to affordably expose the world to their creations. The effects on the church have been profound as well. Many churches have learned that to communicate with people effectively they must employ the use of social networking sites. This medium for communicating allows churches to "get the word out" to hundreds at once making it effective and easy.

As the church continues to use social networking to reach out to congregations as a whole and members of our congregation connect with each other, problems do arise. Like any good thing, social networking can be misused, abused, and transformed into a bad thing.

The nature of social networking lends itself to the easy dissemination of gossip and slander. God's Word tells us that “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. ” (Proverbs 16:28, NIV). Gossiping in the virtual world is as much a sin as gossip in the physical.

Another aspect of social networking that is both good and bad from a pastoral perspective is the view of a church member's life as presented on their profile page. A profile page is a window into who people really are, what they are doing, and what motivates them. This is good in that it helps a pastor see where people really are, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This is bad in that it can be extremely frustrating and defeating to see people praising for the Lord on Sunday morning and then see what they are doing throughout the week, especially Friday and Saturday night.

Living a double life as a Christian is not a new concept. Jesus said “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. ” (Matthew 6:24, NIV), He was talking about money but His meaning was more broad reaching to anything that we worship or serve more than the triune God. Social networking just reveals what has been going on for thousands of years and pastors can no longer fool themselves that everyone who comes to church on Sunday morning is living a holy life before God the rest of the week.

Some pastors have reacted by burying their head in the sand and deleting their Facebook or Myspace account, trying to revert to the ways things were before, see no evil, there be no evil. They wish they had never taken the red pill and been exposed to the reality of a church where not everyone lives happily ever after. Of course this does nothing to serve the kingdom, in fact it is a disservice to the kingdom.

Down and dirty is where Jesus served during His earthly ministry. He did not turn a blind eye to the sin of the hypocrite or Pharisee, He confronted, rebuked, and extorted these men and women to live a holy life by the grace of God. I believe that we are to do the same. We are to expose virtual sin and hypocrisy just as we would if we were present during the act. By doing so we proclaim the Word of God to those who perishing that they may hear and be saved by the grace of God.

Pastors need to embrace social networking, it's not going away. Use this tool to further the kingdom of God by examining where your congregation is and tailor your messages to address their issues and struggles. Hold members of your church accountable for what they post and how they conduct themselves online and encourage them to do the same for others. Finally, guard what you post and share online because you will be judged more harshly than anyone.

The Sin Bay, What Does The Bible Say About Pirating Software?

Last year Microsoft made $13.7 billion. Big budget movies like Transformers 3 and Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince made $300 million each. The music industry made $10.4 billion. With all these people getting rich, what is wrong with downloading software, movies, and music from illegal pirating websites? If I download a copy of Microsoft Office will Bill Gates go hungry?

There is no question that pirating software (making copies of illegally or legally obtained media in your possession for further distribution regardless of financial gain) is against Federal Law. But many have convinced themselves that pirating music, movies, and software for personal use is not a violation of the law.  Some also reason that the law is overly restrictive and senseless and have decided that they will not obey it.  Even more are compelled by their sense of need for whatever they are stealing that they ignore their conscience and take whatever they want.

Of course whatever your reason for stealing intellectual property, it is still stealing.  Exodus 20:15 clearly says "You shall not steal." Stealing is taking the property of another without permission. When you make or receive a copy of any intellectual property that you have not properly paid for you are taking from the creator of that property the right to receive compensation.  This is the textbook definition of stealing.

Our opinions o f whether or not copyright law is right or wrong is irrelevant.  The fact is that it is the law and we are admonished in Scripture to "be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient" (Titus 3:1). Pirating software is illegal in the United States and whether or not we agree with this law or not Scripture instructs us to submit to these laws. Paul tells us in Romans 13:1 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (Romans 13:1) Paul is saying that we obey the authorities because they receive their authority from God alone.

 What really drives the pirating community is greed. Christians and non-Christians alike have convinced themselves that their need for a song, movie, or software title far outweighs whatever God has to say on the subject.  They have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.” (Romans 1:25) God has spoken in regards to stealing and obeying the authorities but some have exchanged that knowledge for the lie that it isn't stealing, or they are not hurting anyone, or that God doesn't care about pirating, or these industries are ripping us off and deserve it.

Of course these are all excuses that allow us to keep doing what we know is wrong. We are good at justifying our sin.  However, God desires that we would simply repent of our sin and turn to Him.  Do you really need that song, movie, or program that badly?  Is separating yourself from God worth it?  If you are pirating software, music, or movies delete them today and commit to live above reproach in this area of your life.

Out of the Wreck, I Arise

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? -Romans 8:35

"If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened." -George Mueller

God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says—“I will be with him in trouble.” It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man’s life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are “more than conquerors in all these things.” Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.
 

“Shall tribulation …?” Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may—exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.
 
“Shall anguish …?”—can God’s love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
 

“Shall famine …?”—can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?
 

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God’s character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it—the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.
 

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

Getting a Hold On Grace

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ” -Romans 5:1–3, NIV

"Just as the sinner's despair of any hope from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace." -A.W.Pink

The concept of grace is defined as God’s active involvement on behalf of his people. In the New Testament Divine grace becomes embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, who demonstrates visibly the dynamic nature of God’s grace and fulfills in his ministry of redemption the old covenant promises relative to God’s gracious dealings with humanity (Jn 1:14, 17).
 
God’s grace manifested in Jesus Christ makes it possible for God to forgive sinners and to gather them in the church, the new covenant community. During his ministry, Jesus repeatedly pronounced the words of forgiveness on a great number of sinners and ministered God’s mercy to a variety of desperate human needs. Through teachings such as the father’s forgiveness of the prodigal son and the search for the lost sheep, Jesus made it clear that he had come to seek and save those who were lost. But ultimately it was his redemptive death on the cross that opened wide the gate of salvation for repentant sinners to find access to God’s forgiving and restorative grace. 

This simple truth is formulated in the doctrine of justification by faith through grace (Rom 3:23; Ti 3:7). According to this teaching, God’s gracious provision of the substitutionary death of Christ enables him to pronounce a verdict of “just” or “not guilty” on repentant sinners and to include them in his eternal purposes. As a result, they enter into the realm of God’s gracious activity, which enables them to implement the process of individual sanctification in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

God’s grace manifested in Jesus Christ also makes it possible for God to bestow on believers undeserved benefits that enrich their lives and unite them together in the church, the body of Christ. Their acceptance on the basis of grace endows them with a new status as children of God, members of the household of God, so that they relate to him as to their heavenly Father (Gal 4:4–6). Consequently, they become members of a community where race, class, and sex distinctions are irrelevant, since they all became equal inheritors of God’s age-long promise to Abraham of universal blessing. In order to enrich their individual lives and to assure the usefulness of their participation in the life of the new community, the Holy Spirit graciously energizes believers with a variety of gifts for the performance of ministries designed to benefit the church (Rom 12:6–8). 
 
Finally, God’s grace manifested in Jesus Christ makes it possible for God to cause believers to reflect his grace in their character and relationships. The uncompromising condition for receiving God’s grace is humility (Jas 4:6; 1 Pt 5:5). Such humility in relation to God enables believers to practice humility in regard to other people. From a position of grace, they can set aside selfishness and conceit in order to treat others with deference (Phil 2:3–4) in an attitude of mutual servanthood (Eph 5:21), and in a spirit of mutual forgiveness (Mt 18:23–35) so that even their communication can exhibit divine grace (Col 4:6). Since the grace of Jesus Christ constitutes the existential context of the lives and relationships of believers, they are exhorted not to pervert the grace of God into ungodly practice (Jude 1:4) but instead to grow in the grace of the Lord (2 Pt 3:18).

The essential meaning of grace in the Bible refers to God’s disposition to exercise goodwill toward his creatures. This favorable disposition of God finds its supreme expression in Jesus Christ. By its very definition, this grace is rendered fully accessible to all humans with no other precondition than a repentant desire to receive it (Ti 2:11–12). As a result, the human condition of alienation from God and from his purposes becomes replaced with access to the otherwise unapproachable majesty of God represented by a throne, so that his grace may become available to meet human need (Heb 4:16). The tragic alternative to receiving God’s grace is to remain in hopeless alienation or to pursue sterile attempts to merit God’s favor through human efforts doomed to futility (Rom 1:21). God’s unconditional acceptance of sinners may be conditioned only by their rejection of his acceptance.

Because Christ represents the fulfillment, the embodiment, and the dispenser of divine grace, the early Christians freely referred to God’s grace as “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This grace was conceived as being so basic and so pervasive to their individual lives and to the existence of their communities of faith that they naturally coupled the traditional greeting of shalom (“peace”) with a reference to the grace of Jesus Christ. This is the reason for the repetition of numerous variations on the basic greeting formula found in almost every book of the NT, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (2 Thes 3:18).
 
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (551). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

Who are the ‘super-apostles’?

"I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!"  2 Corinthians 12:11–13 NIV

The ‘super-apostles’ are Jewish missionaries who have arrived at the church in Corinth since Paul left. On the surface they are knowledgeable, good-looking and eloquent. Underneath, they are devious and domineering.
The ‘super-apostles’ manage to mislead the Corinthians, because the Greeks like their gods to be powerful and perfect. They find it almost impossible to accept a God who gets crucified, and Paul (whom one person described as having a bald head, bandy legs and beetle brows) is a most unlikely apostle!

Although the ‘super-apostles’ present themselves as Christians, they have reworked the gospel for their own ends. The content of their message and the style of their ministry is not at all true to Christ and his gospel.

If all this sounds familiar you may have been watching a little to much Trinity Broadcasting Network.  This television station was founded on the "super apostle" prosperity teaching "Name it Claim it".  They look right, act right, and seemingly preach right, but there is one thing missing, doctrine.

This was the same thing that Paul was writing to the young Corinthian church about.  They had traded solid Biblical teaching in for a Gospel that was more appealing to them.  They supported the "super apostles" financially and followed the false gospel they preached to the point where some had begun to slander their real pastor, Paul.

As a pastor for 15 years I have seen this in the church time and time again.  Men and women who connect with the teaching of a television evangelist, begin following his/her ministry, and then leave the church because their pastor is not that person.  This is not God's plan.  While some teaching on the television is solid (this is the exception) God has intended for his people to be part of a local body of believers.

I commend the spiritual hunger of believers that watch TBN but I want to encourage you to guard your heart and your doctrine closely.  Don't trade the truth for a lie.  Test what the evangelist and even what your pastor is teaching by confirming their words with God's Word as revealed in Scripture.

Food Inc.

Last night I watched a movie that was sincere, eye opening, and a little frightening.  Food Inc., a documentary released last year is now out on DVD.  This film exposes the way food is controlled, produced, and subsidized in the US.

One contributer in the movie is the author of the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser.  I read this book several years ago and it changed the way I eat.  The book takes the work of Schlosser a step farther examining the impact of the food industry on people, the environment, and the global impact of food production in the US.

I don't make a habit of recommending movies on this blog and I am not starting that habit today.  I believe every Christian should see this movie because it will educate them as to how to become a better steward of their money, body, and the environment.  We are stewards not only of our finances but of our body and environment, all three belong to God and the care of them has been entrusted to us.  We should take care of what we put into this body that is not our own but is dedicated to the worship and service of Christ.

Eyes on Heaven

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self his being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV

In our Christian pilgrimage it is well, for the most part, to be looking forward. Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal. Whether it be for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love, the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith. Looking into the future we see sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect, and fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Looking further yet, the believer’s enlightened eye can see death’s river passed, the gloomy stream forded, and the hills of light attained on which stands the celestial city; he sees himself enter within the pearly gates, hailed as more than conqueror, crowned by the hand of Christ, embraced in the arms of Jesus, glorified with him, and made to sit together with him on his throne, even as he has overcome and has sat down with the Father on his throne. The thought of this future may well relieve the darkness of the past and the gloom of the present. The joys of heaven will surely compensate for the sorrows of earth. Hush, hush, my doubts! death is but a narrow stream, and you shalt soon have forded it. Time, how short—eternity, how long! Death, how brief—immortality, how endless! I believe even now I eat of Eshcol’s clusters, and sip of the well which is within the gate. The road is so, so short! I shall soon be there.

"When the world my heart is rending
With its heaviest storm of care,
My glad thoughts to heaven ascending,
Find a refuge from despair.
Faith’s bright vision shall sustain me
Till life’s pilgrimage is past;
Fears may vex and troubles pain me,
I shall reach my home at last."

Adapted from "Morning and Evening" by Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  I hope you found as much blessing and encouragement in this devotional as I did.

Backsliding

I heard the story of a little girl who fell out of bed in the middle of the night. She cried out and her mother came running to her bedside.

Her mom asked, “What happened?” The little girl replied, “I think I stayed too close to the place where I got in!”

That happens to a lot of us, as well. We fall because, like the little girl, we are staying too close to the place where we got in. After committing ourselves to Christ, we never go forward spiritually. We never make that complete break with the past, and we end up slipping back into our old sinful behavior.

Backsliding is a powerful word, and a misunderstood one. It can happen easier than some people think. Falling away, or backsliding, is something that we, as Christians, need to constantly be aware of. That’s because if we are not moving forward in Christ, we are naturally going backward. There is no standing still, we are either progressing or regressing.

The Lord says “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding” (Jeremiah 3:22).

From the blog of Greg Laurie, http://blog.greglaurie.com

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